DAILY NEWS BULLETIN LEADING HEALTH, POPULATION AND FAMILY WELFARE STORIES OF THE Day Friday

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1 DAILY NEWS BULLETIN LEADING HEALTH, POPULATION AND FAMILY WELFARE STORIES OF THE Day Friday Breastfeeding Mortality, other losses ascribed to poor breastfeeding can cost Indian economy $14 billion: (The Hindu: ) Young Indian mother breastfeeding her newborn child, Amber near Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. (File Photo) Photo Credit: Getty Images Nearly one lakh children die every year in India due to diseases that could have been prevented through breastfeeding, according to a United Nations report, which also notes that mortality and other losses attributed to inadequate breastfeeding can cost the country s economy $14 billion. The Global Breastfeeding Scorecard, a new report by the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Global Breastfeeding Collective, points out that breastfeeding not only helps prevent diarrhoea and pneumonia, two major causes of death in infants, it also helps reduce mothers risk of ovarian and breast cancer, two leading causes of death among women. In China, India, Nigeria, Mexico and Indonesia alone, inadequate breastfeeding is responsible for more than 2,36,000 child deaths each year. In these countries, the estimated future economic cost of mortality and cognitive losses attributed to inadequate breastfeeding are estimated to be almost USD 119 billion a year. The report says that despite a reported 55 per cent exclusive breastfeeding rate in children below the age of six months, the large population in India and high under five mortality means that an estimated 99,499 children die each year as a result of cases of diarrhoea and

2 pneumonia that could have been prevented through early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continued breastfeeding. Further, the high level of child mortality and growing number of deaths in women from cancers and type II diabetes attributable to inadequate breastfeeding is estimated to drain the Indian economy of $7 billion. Together with another $7 billion in costs related to cognitive losses, India is poised to lose an estimated $14 billion in its economy, or 0.70 per cent of its Gross National Income. Breastfeeding gives babies the best possible start in life, says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General. Breastmilk works like a baby s first vaccine, protecting infants from potentially deadly diseases and giving them all the nourishment they need to survive and thrive, he adds. Yet, the scorecard, which evaluated 194 nations, reveals that no country in the world fully meets the recommended breastfeeding standards. It found that only 40 per cent of children younger than six months are given nothing but breastmilk and only 23 countries have exclusive breastfeeding rates above 60 per cent. The scorecard was released at the start of World Breastfeeding Week alongside a new analysis, demonstrating that an annual investment of only $4.70 per newborn is required to increase the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding among children under six months to 50 per cent by The analysis suggests that meeting this target can save the lives of 5,20,000 children under the age of five and potentially generate $300 billion in economic gains over 10 years, as a result of reduced illness and health care costs and increased productivity. Breastfeeding is one of the most effective and cost effective investments nations can make in the health of their youngest members and the future health of their economies and societies, says UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. By failing to invest in breastfeeding, we are failing mothers and their babies and paying a double price: in lost lives and in lost opportunity. Globally, investment in breastfeeding is far too low. Each year, governments in lower and middle income countries spend approximately $250 million on breastfeeding promotion donors provide only an additional $85 million.

3 Malaria spreads Central team rushes to Mewat as malaria spreads (The Tribune: ) A team from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) of the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry today rushed to Mewat that is struggling with a malaria outbreak-like situation. As many as 1,210 cases of malaria have been reported in the district till Wednesday while there are 1,982 such cases in the entire state. A five-member team led by Dr Suman Wattal, a Deputy Director in the NVBDCP, today visited Nizampur and Buraka villages in Taoru tehsil and Ranika village in Nuh tehsil of Mewat (now Nuh district) and conducted a door-to-door survey to assess the situation. At Ranika, the team found 48 persons complaining of fever and upon their blood test through the rapid test method, 14 of them were found suffering from malaria. Reports from other two villages are yet to be compiled, Dr Atul Choudhary, officiating Deputy Civil Surgeon (Vector Borne Disease) of the district, told The Tribune over phone from Ranika. Dr Choudhary accompanied the team. It is largely an operational failure, as the Health Department in the district does not have the manpower to deal with the situation. The department has all medicines and the material required to control the spread of the disease but it lacks manpower whether doctors or multipurpose health workers, Dr Wattal told The Tribune.

4 Dr Wattal said she had visited Mewat last year too when over 5,000 cases of malaria were reported in the district. At that time, too, the Health Department faced an acute shortage of manpower. Given the fact that the number of malaria cases was over 2,000 by August 2 last year, the situation is relatively better this year. But unless a sufficient number of health workers are provided, the situation can worsen, she warned. Civil Surgeon Dr Shriram Siwach said 79 of 84 posts of multipurpose health worker were vacant and a medical officer is heading the vector borne disease programme in the district. There is only one civil surgeon against eight sanctioned posts. Elsewhere in the state, Palwal (197 cases), Yamunanagar (144), Panchkula (94), Hisar (49), Karnal (47) and Faridabad (42) are some other districts where the malaria situation has become a cause for concern. Meanwhile, six cases of swine flu have also come to light in the state. Of these, three cases have been detected in Panckula while one case each has been found in Yamunanagar, Bhiwani and Kaithal.

5 Smallpox, polio Blame game over smallpox, polio deaths in govt report (Hindustan Times: ) NEWDELHI:A day after the Hindustan Times reported that according to a Delhi government report two people died due to small pox and 11 because of polio in 2016, authorities have started blaming each other over who got it wrong. Smallpox, the highly contagious disease, was eradicated from the world in 1980 and India was declared polio-free in Delhi s last polio case was reported in June The Delhi government has sought clarifications or confirmation from the concerned civic bodies on the discrepancies. After getting clarification/ confirmation from the local bodies, the discrepancies, if any, will be rectified accordingly, said a statement from Delhi government s directorate of economics and statistics, the department responsible for preparing the report. The directorate also explained how the two people whose death had been attributed to smallpox were from out of Delhi, with their addresses registered as Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhapra, Bihar. This is clearly a case of misclassification of death. And, even if the doctors had suspected smallpox or polio, they should have notified the appropriate authorities as these are notifiable diseases. We should not be finding out about it in a yearend report, said Dr K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India. Other than the fact that the report brings back to life a disease that has long been dead, it raises questions over the credibility of the data collected by government and civic agencies. In institutional cases (where deaths occur in hospitals or nursing homes), the cause of death is assigned and certified by the medical practitioner or doctor who had last attended to the deceased. Thereafter, coding as per ICD-10 (internationally accepted method of classifying diseases) is done by the coders of the institution. This data is further transmitted to the concerned local body online for registration of the death, the statement explained. This shows that our doctors need to undergo training one, for proper certification of deaths and two, for processes for proper notification of diseases. Such incidents shake up the confidence in our reporting mechanisms, said Dr Reddy.

6 In reported cases of Polio, the age of deceased is ranging between years, except one case where age is not stated, the statement explained, implying that the people had contracted the disease years ago. Polio is an acute disease. When it happens, it may leave a small percentage of people paralysed. But, an infection which happened a decade ago cannot kill a person, said an expert on condition of anonymity. No wildpolio cases have been reported in Delhi since No cases of Adverse Events Following Immunization or vaccine-acquired polio have been reported in Delhi in the last one year, said a Delhi government official. According to the WHO, the last known natural case of smallpox was in Somalia in Blindness 8.8 million Blind in India in 2015, says study in Lancet (The Indian express: ) In India, there were 7.2 million blind people in 1990, which rose to 8.8 million in 2015, making the country the home of almost a quarter of the total 36 million blind people.

7 As many as 8.8 million people in India were found to be blind in 2015 and another 47.7 million people had moderate and severe vision impairment, according to a study published online by The Lancet Global Health journal on August 2. Worldwide, there are an estimated 36 million people who are blind and this is set to grow to almost 115 million people by 2050, with the highest number in developing countries in Asia and sub-saharan Africa, according to the study. Although rates of blindness and vision impairment have gone down in recent years, the number of cases has risen as the world population has aged, said professor Rupert Bourne of the Anglia Ruskin University in the UK who is the lead author of the study. Between 1990 and 2015, the absolute number of blind people increased by 17.9 per cent. In India, there were 7.2 million blind people in 1990, which rose to 8.8 million in 2015, making the country the home of almost a quarter of the total 36 million blind people. The Lancet study was funded by the Brien Holden Vision Institute and included researchers from Anglia Ruskin University, University of Oxford, L V Prasad Eye Institute in India and others. The study also suggested that prevalence rates could see an upturn by 2020 up to 0.50 per cent rise for blindness and 3.06 per cent for vision impairment. The areas most affected are developing regions. For example, 11.7 million people who are blind lived in south Asia in Dr G V S Murthy, the director of Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Public Health and professor at the International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the number of people above 50 years had increased by 13 per cent in India and despite a decline in the prevalence of blindness from 1 per cent to 0.6 per cent in the country, we still have a large number of blind people. Professor Rohit Khanna, the associate director of the L V Prasad Eye Institute, said that with most vision impairment being a result of ageing as the population continues to grow and age, the number of people affected has increased globally. Other key researchers include professor Vinay Nangia, the director of the Suraj Eye Institute, Nagpur, and Dr Ronnie George of the Medical Research Foundation in Chennai. The same trend is true for India. While one million eye related surgeries were done in the 90s, across the country the number has shot up to six to seven million, he said. For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App

8 Gene Editing in Embryos (The Indian express: ) First genetically modified human embryos created in US using CRISPR For the first time, scientists in the US have successfully used gene-editing tools on human embryos to correct defective DNA that cause inherited diseases. The effort involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the controversial gene-editing technique CRISPR. he illustration shows the injection of gene-editing chemicals into a human egg near the moment of fertilization. The technique is designed to correct a genetic disorder from the father. (Source: MIT) TOP NEWS India vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 1: Twin tons take India to 344/3 at StumpsIndia vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test Day 1: Twin tons take India to 344/3 at Stumps 16-year-old boy raped for a year, names 15 teens16-year-old boy raped for a year, names 15 teens Dubai The Marina Torch fire: All you need to know about the tower's second blaze since 2015Dubai The Marina Torch fire: All you need to know about the tower's second blaze since 2015 For the first time, scientists in the US have successfully used gene-editing tools on human embryos to correct defective DNA that cause inherited diseases. The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University in the US, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the controversial gene-editing technique CRISPR. Previous reports of editing human embryos were all by scientists in China. For ethical reasons, the embryos were not allowed to develop for more than a few days. The experiments are a milestone in journey towards the birth of the first genetically modified humans, according to the MIT Technology Review. Scientists wanted to show that they can eradicate or correct genes that cause inherited disease, like thalassemia. The genetically modified child would then pass the changes on to subsequent generations.

9 Critics say that such experiments may open the gates to a world of designer babies engineered with genetic enhancements a prospect opposed by religious organisations, civil society groups, and biotech companies. So far as I know this will be the first study reported in the US, said Jun Wu from the Salk Institute in the US, who was involved in the project. Gender identity Born this way? Researchers explore the science of gender identity (The Hindu: ) NEW YORK (Reuters) - While President Donald Trump has thrust transgender people back into the conflict between conservative and liberal values in the United States, geneticists are quietly working on a major research effort to unlock the secrets of gender identity. A consortium of five research institutions in Europe and the United States, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, George Washington University and Boston Children's Hospital, is looking to the genome, a person's complete set of DNA, for clues about whether transgender people are born that way. Two decades of brain research have provided hints of a biological origin to being transgender, but no irrefutable conclusions. Now scientists in the consortium have embarked on what they call the largest-ever study of its kind, searching for a genetic component to explain why people assigned one gender at birth so persistently identify as the other, often from very early childhood. (reut.rs/2w3ozg9) Researchers have extracted DNA from the blood samples of 10,000 people, 3,000 of them transgender and the rest non-transgender, or cisgender. The project is awaiting grant funding to begin the next phase: testing about 3 million markers, or variations, across the genome for all of the samples. Knowing what variations transgender people have in common, and comparing those patterns to those of cisgender people in the study, may help investigators understand what role the genome plays in everyone's gender identity. "If the trait is strongly genetic, then people who identify as trans will share more of their genome, not because they are related in nuclear families but because they are more anciently related," said Lea Davis, leader of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute.

10 The search for the biological underpinnings is taking on new relevance as the battle for transgender rights plays out in the U.S. political arena. One of the first acts of the new Trump administration was to revoke Obama-era guidelines directing public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice. (reut.rs/2l8pwje) Last week, the president announced on Twitter he intends to ban transgender people from serving in the military. (reut.rs/2uxf8kg) A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday found 68 percent of Americans say transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military, an even larger majority than the 58 percent found in a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week. Texas lawmakers are debating a bathroom bill that would require people to use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate. (reut.rs/2txkbgv) North Carolina in March repealed a similar law after a national boycott cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business. (reut.rs/2ngg1oh) Currently, the only way to determine whether people are transgender is for them to selfidentify as such. While civil rights activists contend that should be sufficient, scientists have taken their search to the lab. That quest has made some transgender people nervous. If a "cause" is found it could posit a "cure," potentially opening the door to so-called reparative therapies similar to those that attempt to turn gay people straight, advocates say. Others raise concerns about the rights of those who may identify as trans but lack biological "proof." "It's an idea that can be wielded against us, depending on the ideology of the user," said Kale Edmiston, a transgender person and postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh specializing in neuroimaging. Dana Bevan, a transgender woman, psychologist and author of three books on transgender topics, acknowledged the potential manipulation of research was a concern but said, "I don't believe that science can or should hold back from trying to understand what's going on." Davis stressed that her study does not seek to produce a genetic test for being transgender, nor would it be able to. Instead, she said, she hopes the data will lead to better care for transgender people, who experience wide health disparities compared to the general population. (reut.rs/2cyp674) One-third of transgender people reported a negative healthcare experience in the previous year such as verbal harassment, refusal of treatment or the need to teach their doctors about transgender care, according to a landmark survey of nearly 28,000 people released last year by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

11 Some 40 percent have attempted suicide, almost nine times the rate for the general population. "We can use this information to help train doctors and nurses to provide better care to trans patients and to also develop amicus briefs to support equal rights legislation," said Davis, who is also director of research for Vanderbilt's gender health clinic. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee has one of the world's largest DNA databanks. It also has emerged as a leader in transgender healthcare with initiatives such as the Trans Buddy Program, which pairs every transgender patient with a volunteer to help guide them through their healthcare visits. The study has applied for a grant from the National Institutes of Health and is exploring other financial sources to provide the $1 million needed to complete the genotyping, expected to take a year to 18 months. Analysis of the data would take about another six months and require more funding, Davis said. The other consortium members are Vrije University in Amsterdam and the FIMABIS institute in Malaga, Spain. PROBING THE BRAIN Until now, the bulk of research into the origins of being transgender has looked at the brain. Neurologists have spotted clues in the brain structure and activity of transgender people that distinguish them from cisgender subjects. A seminal 1995 study was led by Dutch neurobiologist Dick Swaab, who was also among the first scientists to discover structural differences between male and female brains. Looking at postmortem brain tissue of transgender subjects, he found that male-to-female transsexuals had clusters of cells, or nuclei, that more closely resembled those of a typical female brain, and vice versa. Slideshow (24 Images) Swaab's body of work on postmortem samples was based on just 12 transgender brains that he spent 25 years collecting. But it gave rise to a whole new field of inquiry that today is being explored with advanced brain scan technology on living transgender volunteers. Among the leaders in brain scan research is Ivanka Savic, a professor of neurology with Sweden's Karolinska Institute and visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her studies suggest that transgender men have a weakened connection between the two areas of the brain that process the perception of self and one's own body. Savic said those connections seem to improve after the person receives cross-hormone treatment.

12 Her work has been published more than 100 times on various topics in peer-reviewed journals, but she still cannot conclude whether people are born transgender. "I think that, but I have to prove that," Savic said. A number of other researchers, including both geneticists and neurologists, presume a biological component that is also influenced by upbringing. But Paul McHugh, a university professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has emerged as the leading voice challenging the "born-this-way" hypothesis. He encourages psychiatric therapy for transgender people, especially children, so that they accept the gender assigned to them at birth. McHugh has gained a following among social conservatives, while incensing LGBT advocates with comments such as calling transgender people "counterfeit." Last year he co-authored a review of the scientific literature published in The New Atlantis journal, asserting there was scant evidence to suggest sexual orientation and gender identity were biologically determined. The article drew a rebuke from nearly 600 academics and clinicians who called it misleading. McHugh told Reuters he was "unmoved" by his critics and says he doubts additional research will reveal a biological cause. "If it were obvious," he said, "they would have found it long ago." Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Marla Dickerson Arthritis drug Arthritis drug can treat blood cancer (The Hindu: ) Tests carried out by British scientists Blood cancer sufferers could be treated with a simple arthritis drug, according to scientists at a leading British university. Martin Zeidler, from the University of Sheffield s Department of Biomedical Science, and his colleagues have found that methotrexate (MTX) a drug on the WHO list of essential

13 medicines and commonly used to treat arthritis works by directly inhibiting the molecular pathway responsible for causing the disease. Initial tests were carried out on fruit fly cells to screen for small molecules that modulate JAK/STAT signalling a pathway whose misregulation is central to the development in humans of Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), the collective term for progressive blood cancers like Polycythemia Vera (PV). Ineffective treatment Current treatments do not slow the disease progression and provide little relief from symptoms, the University said in a release on Thursday. The team now hope to go on to a full clinical trial early next year. Waterborne Diseases Hot Startup - This Device will End Waterborne Diseases(The Economic Times: ) Device-will-End-Waterborne-Diseases Has a tiny reactor to kill 99% of microbes in water In Israel's capital Tel Aviv last month, Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu toyed with two small cylindrical devices as they listened to Anjan Mukherjee, an innovator and entrepreneur, from Mumbai, explain the uniqueness of the devices....this, if you fit in a normal borewell hand pump, you will get disinfected water instantaneously. It does not require any consumables and has zero maintenance... very low capex.so, in underserved areas, if you just fit it in a borewell hand pump, you can forget diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid forever, Mukherjee is heard telling the Prime Ministers of India and Israel in a video shot by Israel's Government Press Office. Taraltec Solutions, his company, was one of the four startups chosen by government think tank Niti Aayog to represent the country at an India-Israel tech innovation exhibition on water, health and agriculture. The other startups were Perfint, Axiostat and Barrix. It was

14 unusual for Mukherjee to secure an audience with Modi and Netanyahu, since his startup was just seven-months old. But the startup's product is unusual too. Its biomimicry-based technology, which allows the tiny reactor to kill 99% of the microbes in water (as per NABL-approved lab tests), is based on a scientific phenomenon called cavitation.underwater a snapping shrimp (alphidae) shoots jets of water by snapping shut its claws to knock out its prey, causing voids or cavitation bubbles. These bubbles, as they implode, release microsized packets of energy with temperatures of several thousand degrees, pressure of hundreds of bars and huge turbulence. Our reactor creates millions of such voids or cavitation bubbles with water jets. When it implodes, the implosion creates shock waves which instantaneously kill all the germs in the water being pumped out, Mukherjee told ET in an interview. The startup won a Rs 25-lakh cheque from India Innovation Growth Programme 2.0 -a contest run by Department of Science and Technology, Lockheed Martin and Tata Trusts. The next step for Taraltec, Mukherjee said, is scaling up production as demand for the reactors grows -mostly from CSR departments of large corporations. He also hopes for the government to adopt the reactor, which eliminates chances of waterborne diseases, in its various welfare schemes. We have set up clusters of third party operations to increase production, he said. As of now, there are nearly 100 Taraltec reactors disinfecting water in hand pumps in rural Maharashtra and Jharkhand.The reactor, Mukherjee said, is priced less than Rs 6,000, weighs about a kg, runs without power and takes 15 minutes to install. He said Taraltec's technology, for which he has applied for a patent, works at large scale too. His company has installed reactors to disinfect industrial water at a factory of a multinational automobile company. Mukherjee, an IIT Bombay dropout who became a marine engineer and then studied at IIM Bangalore, said his journey as an entrepreneur for the past two decades has simply been about perseverance and the support of people, one least expects to get help from. It's like jumping from the 30th floor hoping someone will catch you. And someone does. Trust me.

15 BREASTFEEDING WEEK BREASTFEEDING WEEK - 100% rise in breastfeeding in a decade (The Times of India: ) -WEEK-100-rise-in-breastfeeding-in-a In a heart-warming trend for the country, recent data shows an increase in the number of mother who breastfeed their babies initially and sustained them for six months and more. As per data from the Union health ministry, initial breastfeeding has nearly doubled in the past decade -from 23.4% in to 41.6% in Exclusive breastfeeding as proportion of children under the age of six months has gone up to 54.9% ( ) from 46.4% ( ), read a statement from the ministry. The health ministry further added that to improve the scope of initial breast that to improve the scope of initial breastfeeding rates, there are plans to have lactation management centres in public hospitals. This will ensure that sick and preterm babies are fed with safe human breast milk, said an official. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, officials added, have been entrusted to lead awareness activities. We have started family-centred care for newborns. Here, mothers are trained how to breastfeed newborn and other members of the family are trained to care of the babies.the centres are helping in faster recovery of pre-term babies significantly, Dr Arti Maria, neonatologist at RML said. According to Dr Bernd Stahl, R&D di rector of human milk research at Nutricia Research, mother's milk is required by the infant to achieve optimal growth and cognitive development of the brain. It has a positive impact on mothers too. Women who breastfeed have a reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancers and metabo lic and cardiovascular diseases. It also helps in post-partum weight loss, Dr Stahl said. He added that there is no substitute to breastfeeding. In several households, especially in urban areas, mothers are unable to breastfeed their child due to various reasons including lack of motivation, ignorance, work pressure and work places not being equipped with facilities, said Dr Nandan Joshi, head of nutrition science and medical affairs at Danone India. According to WHO recommendations, infants should be exclusively breast fed for the first six months, followed by an introduction to complementary feeding at six months along with continued breast feeding up to two-years. The India Newborn Action Plan, developed by the

16 health ministry, is targeting a 75% rate of initiation of breastfeeding within an hour of birth by 2017 and 90% by Healthcare Poor record of PPPs in healthcare raises concern(the Times of India: ) PPPs-in-healthcare-raises-concern Public-private partner ships (PPPs) are being promoted as a necessity to improve people's access to healthcare services but concerns over the poor record of PPPs in healthcare persist.even the two main private parties who were part of Niti Aayog consultations for PPP in healthcare, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the private healthcare players' federation called NATHEALTH, were hardpressed to give examples of successful PPPs in healthcare. While several models of PPP have been tried since early 2000, there is no dearth of stories of disasters in healthcare PPPs. One of the most well-known PPP is that between a large corporate hospital in South Delhi and Delhi government where the government gave 15 acres of land free of cost and also invested over Rs 23 crore with the understanding that 33% of the beds would be free. When the Delhi government took the hospital to court for not providing free treatment, it was argued that the agreement was only for free beds and not for free treatment. The case drags on in court. The fiasco was put down to poor drafting and proponents of PPPs say that if drafted well, agreements could work. However, the fact that the World Bank ranks India 172 out of 190 countries on enforcing contracts, inspires little confidence in the government's ability to draw up water-tight contracts that would ensure that the public would not get a raw deal in these PPPs. PPP advocates defend the difficulty in finding examples of successful PPPs in healthcare by saying that there are so many different models in healthcare which are broadly ermed PPPs that it was diffi ult to pin down what exactly was being referred to by the erm PPP. The various kinds of models could include medical ontracts, franchising, joint entures, voucher or service purchase coupon, social health insurance, health co peratives and subsidies. Gov rnment consultations have been mostly with the corpo ate groups in healthcare. The National Commission of Mac o Economics in Health estimated in 2005 that owner-oper ted health facilities, like poly linics and nursing homes onstitute over 85% of India's private health

17 sector. Yet, this dominant segment appears to be absent in the consultations on accessibility to healthcare. Anjan Bose, secretary general of NATHEALTH, a federation of corporate hospitals, medical technology companies and other private healthcare players when contacted said that his organisation had no reports or case studies of successful PPPs in healthcare though some NATHEALTH members did count their own PPPs as successful ones. It is difficult to measure the success of healthcare PPPs. But ask yourself why there was a need for PPPs at all. Obviously, the government is unable to make the required investment in healthcare delivery. It talks about investing 2.5% of GDP in health, but that has been a moving target for more than a decade. So, it needs PPP and has to make it work through robust agreements with welldefined outcomes and strong regulation, explained Bose.Also, rather than an entirely private set up, won't the government have better possibility of control over a PPP? he asked. CII too was not able to share any examples of successful PPPs in healthcare though the Niti Aayog document on engaging the private sector for treating cancer and cardiac and respiratory diseases mentions that four regional workshops were organised by the CII on the subject. Niti Aaayog's document states that as the government's premier `think-tank', it was mandated to provide the Centre and states with strategic and technical advice on evidence-based policy making in various sectors including health. While there are many examples of PPP working in infrastructure projects like highways, there seems to be a dearth of evidence of successful healthcare PPPs. We have to deal with a highly corrupt private healthcare sector looking to maximise profits and trying to get the most out of the PPP and a government that behaves like a demanding and suspicious husband in the partnership, making impractical demands but with no real management structures, remarked a health ministry official adding that the language of partnership had to be junked to be replaced with the idea of welldrafted contracts. Meanwhile, the learning process in PPPs is on in full swing with innumerable models being tried across the country. Tiny molecule. A tiny molecule could hold key to curing your cold (The Times of India: )

18 Peptide Found In Our Body Combats Virus Scientists might be on their way to curing the com mon cold after discovering a tiny molecule. The little peptide found in the immune system of humans and animals could help scientists work towards keeping infection out of people, said researchers at Edinburgh Napier University who found it. Possible treatments can also be developed on the back of the antimicrobial peptides that are found naturally in humans and animals and help their bodies respond to infection. The fiveyear study found that the peptides have properties that help them combat rhi novirus the main virus responsible for infecting humans with the cold. Dr Peter Barlow, associate professor of immunology at the university, said, We will ultimately be looking to develop drug treatments that have the potential to cure the common cold. The next step in the project will see scientists try to modify the peptide to make it better at killing the rhinovirus. There is no cure and no vaccine so the development of effective therapies for human rhinovirus, one of the most common causes of viral respiratory tract infections, is an urgent requirement, he said. An effective treatment for cold will also help sufferers of more serious lung conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for whom viral in fections can pose a serious health risk. Earlier research by Dr Barlow had underlined the potential of antimicrobial peptides in tackling the influenza A virus. The 200,000 latest study, funded by the Chief Scientist Office and medical research charity Tenovus Scotland, expanded this work to explore the possibility of using antimicrobial peptides from pigs and sheep to fight the rhinovirus. Using peptides synthesised in the laboratory, researchers Filipa Henderson Sousa and Dr Victor Casanova assessed the impact of the different peptides on lung cells infected with human rhinovirus. The peptides successfully attacked the virus, and could provide clues for developing novel treatments based on peptides found in nature. Barlow said, Our next step will be to modify the peptide to make it even better at killing this virus. Breastfed Baby (The Asian Age: )

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21 Diabetes ((The Asian Age: ) Human DNA ((The Asian Age: )

22 Gender Identity ((The Asian Age: ) Health care Services ((The Asian Age: )

23 Sex Ratio (Dainik Gagaran: ) Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ Ʌसध र11Ǒ ã ȣ Ʌ Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ Ʌह आ सध र ȡ ȡ स क त द त ह और यह ȡ[ ȡ ह इस Ǒ ȡ Ʌ f ज रह Ĥ ȡ ध र -ध र ȣ ȣ, ȣ Ǘ ह रह ɇ@ǒ ã ȣ सरक र क \ [ ȡèğ और ȡȲǔÉ ȧǔ ȯ ȡ ɮ ȡ ȡत य र ȧगई [2016 ȧǐ Ȫ [ Ʌयह स मन आय ह [2015 ɅĤ Ǔ हज र ɉ पर 898 ɉ क म क बल [यह आ कड़ 902 रह Ǒ ã ȣ क è ȡèØ एव ǐ ȡ ã ȡ ȡ क f Ǔ ǔæ त र पर यह स त षजनक ब त ह, ȯ Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ Ʌ ȡ Ǘ ȣसध र आग ह भ करत ह इस Ǒ ȡ Ʌअभ ȡ ȧĥ ȡ करन ȧ ] æ ȡह इस ǐ Ȫ [ Ʌ ȡ ȣ] Ȳ ɉक अन स र, [2015 क म क बल [ Ʌ\ è ȡ ɉ

24 Ʌह न व ल Ĥ ȣ सव द ȧ \ रह इस भ Û ȡ Û दर Ʌ Ǚƨ क एक क रण क त र पर द ख ज सकत ह ^ Ʌक ई द र य ȣȳ Ǒ ȡक [ Ȣह न पर ` ȧद खर ख Ǒ \ è ȡ Ʌह त ह त Û ȡħ Ǘ ȡज स ǔè Ǔ स ȡ ȧहद तक बच ज सकत ह 1यह ȣह Ǒ ã ȣ Ʌ Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ Ʌक छ सध र ह आ ह, ȯ यह अब भ [2011 ȧजनगणन क ȡçĚȣ आ कड़ 940 क मक बल बह त कम ɇ@ ȡçĚȣ र जध न ह न क क रण Ǒ ã ȣ Ʌ Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ इस è तक त ह न ȣ ȡǑ ã ȣ सरक र क इस आ कड़ तक पह चन क f ग भ रत स ȡ [करन ȡǑ हज र ɉ पर ɉ ȧ ȲÉ ȡ बढ़ न क f ज न ƨ ȣ ȯस य जन बन ई ȡǑ f और उसपर Ǘ ȣ ^Í ȡ ǔè क स थ क म ȡ ज न ȡǑ ã ȣ Ʌ ȡ ȣ \ è ȡ ɉ Ʌ Ǖ ȡf Ȳऔर बढ़ ई ज न ȡǑ f ȡ \ è ȡ ɉ Ʌह न व ल Ĥ ȧ ȲÉ ȡक और बढ़ य ज सक [ Ȣ Ǒ ȡj Ȳक ȡ ȣ\ è ȡ ɉतक ल न क f भ ȡ क è पर Ĥ ȡ f ज न ȡǑ ã ȣ Ʌ Û ȡħ Ǘ ȡक र कन क हरस भव Ĥ ȡ f ज न ȡǑ इसक f सम ज क \ ǓȲ छ र तक क म f ज न ȧ] æ ȡह Ȫ ɉक ȡ Ǿ करन क स थ ȣ, Û ȡ ħ Ǘ ȡ ज स Ǖ Ǚ Ʌ Ü [ ह म और \ ãěȡ ȡ`Ȳ Ʌġɉ ȧ पहच न कर उनक ȡ É ȡ [ ȡ_ ȧ ज न ȡǑ ã ȣ क Ȳ ȡ Ǖ ȡ क म मल Ʌद श क दस र ȡÏ ɉक उद हरण Ĥ è Ǖ करन ȡǑ Allergy Medicine ((Dainik Gagaran: )

25 Diabetic (Hindustan: ) Food and Nutrition ((Hindustan: )

26